The Unseen Heroes
by Amber Kane
Summary: The two demigod camps are well aware of each other now, but what they never knew was that there was always someone else there, keeping the peace. Alex isn't a demigod, but he could always see things others couldn't. Naomi needs a solution, and is itching for a quest. Andra is strong, but she can't seem to escape her past, and is more important than she ever thought.Romance/Friend
1. Prologue

A loud, enormous clock that looked fancy but would fall apart quickly in the years to come chimed and rang proudly, causing a mass of young and old women in fancy dresses and skirts, and both adolescent men and those who were losing their hair in firm-necked formal suits flooded into the tall, steepled building. The parking lot in front was very full, and on the left side sat a dark, unmarked car, which was an unpleasant shade of maroon. This car was easily in sight of the mass of excited, chattering people entering the building, and it so being that most of them came within at least ten feet of it on their way to the front doors. If only one of them had noticed that car, with no license plate and no disabled parking ticket, parked sideways across two disabled parking spots. If only one of the young, anxious girls dabbing at their makeup hurriedly or one of the older, tall, suited men had taken it upon themselves to cup their hands to the slightly tinted windows of the car and peek inside, or even draw attention to it, perhaps the horrible events of the night would not have happened.

It was well after the rooms were full of laughter, talking, and general sounds of happiness that a boy rode up to the tall building, quite late for the event, on his electric blue motorcycle. The motorcycle was small and unimpressive, more of a motorized bicycle than a true motorcycle. The driver was in the awkward stage where he could not be counted as a boy anymore, but not quite a man had both wind-flattened, short-cropped dark hair and a black suit stained with multiple flecks of newly-added dirt on the bottoms of the pants. He was the only one, who, after jumping off the bike and hastily wiping his dirt speckled black shoes, cast a wary glance at the car. He paused on his way to the building, his expression full of mingling curiosity and suspicion. But then, the front doors opened, and a rather old man with a knowing smile and an old-fashioned mahogany-colored, slightly fuzzy suit opened the doors and called out to the boy in a welcoming manner, causing the boy to stride quickly towards and into the building, casting one last glance back at the car.  
The old man's smile never wavered as he closed the thick, dark doors for the boy. When they came together, the heavy, varnished wood clanged in a final sort of way.


	2. Another Strike

Finding the events room wasn't too hard, because all Anders had to do was follow the sounds of laughter and music floating down the halls. He spotted a group of younger teenage girls around a corner, and waved at them as he sped by, getting the expected reaction of giggling, blushing, and waving back, although he noticed that the middle one regarded him rather coldly. Strange. He shrugged it off, and paused in front of a set of double doors. A few uninvited nerves jumped into his throat, but he ignored them, pushed open the double doors, and stepped inside.  
The events room was enormous, and took up about a fourth of the entire building. The ceiling was slightly-dome shaped, built of wood and curved supports with designs carefully indented into the slate partions. Sparkling crystalline chandeliers cast yellow light over everything. There were no windows, but the walls were covered with large pictures of the faces of mostly men and a few tough-looking women, with the names printed elegantly beneath the pictures. Lined along the walls were booths, most of which sold things like food and drinks. One of the largest booths was for the music, and from what Anders could see, a crowd of mostly preteen girls swarmed all around the booth, giving song requests and chatting to each other. In one small corner of the room sat sets of spindly rounded plastic tables with cheap chairs grouped around them. The rest of the room was taken up by a hubbub of dancing people either dancing wildly and belting out the words to the song, some sort of Taylor Swift remix, or standing and talking/yelling to each other over the noise of others and the music. It was sort of like a summer camp dance gone on steroids and smacked in the middle of a deserted college campus. Anders immediately headed over to the corner with the plastic tables, still slightly stunned by the unexpectedly huge size of the room. The noise didn't bother him very much, but he was not there to eat, dance, or have fun anyway. He was there to stop a disaster. Anders checked his watch and leaned his head on his hand. For now, he could do nothing but wait.  
Anders' sleepless night was starting to catch up to him, and his drowsiness was strong enough that he failed to notice when someone slipped into the chair across from across the table. After a few minutes he heard a snicker and opened his eyes blearily. A familiar girl was sitting in front of him and smirking. He rubbed his eyes and yawned widely.  
"Had a nice nap, Anders?"  
"Would've been better if you hadn't interrupted it, Nyx."  
Nyx fiddled with a crudely made string bracelet around her ankle absently as Anders brushed off the bottoms of his suit pants again and studied her. Nyx's bright green eyes sat perfectly on her pallid, triangular face, and she was wearing some kind of tunic-like, pitch black dress with a silver leather belt around her waist. Her thick, dark hair was in a messy side braid and looked wind-swept and a little tangled, like she had ridden here on a Harley Davidson. "Anyway" she continued, as if they were in the middle of a conversation, "before you took your nap, did you find...um, what ever it was that was making Psamathe so nervous?"  
Anders blinked a few times.  
"Uhhh...I think so. It was in plain sight, though, and very suspicious...it might be a decoy."  
Nyx rolled her eyes. "Well, we don't have much time."  
Anders got up and stretched luxuriously."Okay, it's in the parking lot. Come on."  
Nyx rose from the spindly chair.  
"Let's go."  
They wove their way through the dancing, laughing, chatting people a little anxiously, and it was almost a relief to step through the double doors and out of the enormous room. In the much quieter hallway, Anders opened his mouth to remark on just that when Nyx inhaled quickly and turned her head sharply towards the small, thick window in the wall a few feet forward. She grabbed Anders and pulled him over . "Look" she breathed. Outside it was dark, but an illegally parked maroon car, now black in the shadow of the moon, was quite visible, as was the man getting out of it. His massive biceps were wrapped in white bandages with symbols on them that shone in the moonlight, and his ragged cut off jeans and snowy grey tanktop revealed enormous muscles on muscles on more muscles, most of it covered in white wrap bandages though, and a huge silver pendant hanging around his neck in the shape of what looked like a viking hat. He was swinging a helmet with enormous ram's horns on the sides around his massive finger lazily, and was completely bald, although he did have a goatee. Next to him walked a younger-looking teenage boy, moonlight reflecting off of his timeless face. He had long brown hair and and shiny bronze-gold armor, which matched his golden cape nicely.  
Anders groaned.  
"We can still fight them off, minimize the damage..." Nyx started strategizing uncertainly, like she was asking a question.  
"Nyx, the both of us are no match for Krios, especially if that other one is who I think he is."  
"We can hold them back, then!"  
"The only thing we can do is try to get as many people out of here as possible"  
Nyx whirled around to face Anders. He recoiled immediately by the livid, defiant look in her silver-green eyes, heightened by her curled lip and firm jaw.  
"I'm ready to die for the Silvien. With or without you".  
"So am I. Don't accuse me of being disloyal." Anders responded coolly.  
After a few moments, Nyx sighed. "How can we do this?"  
Anders stayed silent and stared out the window, where Krios and the other boy seemed to be arguing about something a few feet from the car. He wondered idly how Krios was able to fit inside the driver's seat, which looked about big enough to seat one of his biceps.  
"Krios has strength, but he's very stupid. The boy seems weaker, but smarter" Anders prompted Nyx.  
Nyx nodded and stared out of the window in the same direction. After a moment of consideration she leaned to the side and murmured in to Anders' ear "The boy is easily provoked. He is an immortal but a very minor one. Any small thing will set him off to fight. He used to be strong, almost as strong as Krios, but something happened...an emotional bond devastation, something like betrayal. I can't see further than that without getting closer. Do you know who he is?"  
Anders nodded.  
"Pallas."  
"Krios' brother?"  
"No, his son. Pallas' children-Krios' grandchildren-joined Zeus' side in the Titan War. That would probably explain the emotional stuff."  
Nyx smirked. "A couple centuries and you'd think he'd be over it."  
Anders looked at her, somber. "That kind of stuff...it's not something you can get over, you just have to learn to live with it."  
Nyx stared at Anders for a moment, shook her head wonderingly, and then hurriedly looked back out the window. Krios was standing a few feet from the car with his massive arms crossed, glaring at Pallas, who had both fists balled up and was saying something vehemently at Krios, which looked odd, seeing that Krios was about two feet taller than Pallas. They were both visibly unhappy with each other. Anders reminded Nyx to take advantage of their hesitation:  
"What are they planning, Nyx?"  
Nyx shut her eyes and leaned against the wall. Anders waited silently and anxiously, sure that his frantic heartbeat was clearly audible. A murmur of voices and music from the party could still be heard, even three hallways away, and Nyx squeezed her eyes tighter as the seconds ticked on.  
Just when Anders was about to say something to at least break the the horribly winding tension, Nyx muttered "They're going to use...bombs? Both of them have their swords, too..."  
Anders was momentarily stunned.  
" A sword? for what? He doesn't know we're here, and what mortal would he want to kill so badly? And bombs..._Krios_ is using _mortal _weapons?"  
For the first time Anders found himself doubting Nyx's abilities. Perhaps Nyx realized this as she opened her eyes and snapped "Not _mortal_ bombs. Bombs is only the simplest word to define it. These are things that can leave an immortal broken for years. He's going to blow apart everything within at least 100 miles of this place."  
Anders gaped. "But...why? Why would he want to"-  
"Anders! Haven't you...can't you...didn't you see right away that this place is _full_ of demigods?"  
Anders' mouth nearly dropped open a few inches.  
"WHAT?"  
Nyx rolled her eyes for the third time. "_Boni dii_, Anders. This party is at least nine-tenths demigods. Some are really old, but obviously most of them are younger. I wouldn't be surprised if this event was planned by Krios himself to get them all in the same place, but this is the most demigods I've ever seen in one place regardless. I can't believe you didn't notice."  
"All these demigods in one place...then why haven't any fights been started yet?"  
Nyx bit her lip."You're right...for the most part, everyone's getting along, which is a surprise, because I'm sure there's both Roman and Greek under this roof. If they're not fighting, then that must mean that" Nyx;s eyes widened "that this has to be a meeting under peaceful terms."  
"A truce." Anders speculated.  
Naomi turned even paler, a remarkable feat considering she had an average complexion of nearly marble white.  
"Imagine what will happen when they all get blown up."  
Anders' face went pale too.  
"Each side will accuse the other..."  
"The Romans won't settle without some kind of war..."  
"That's right, they're always itching to fight someone, especially the Greeks..."  
"Even more so since after they all got inflated egos from battling down Krios at Mount Othrys..."  
"Even the Silvien will be able to do nothing to stop it."  
"Not good" they both said almost at the same time.  
Nyx nodded solemnly.  
"We have to at least try to stop Krios, now!"  
She was halfway down the hallway when Anders snapped out of his visions of Roman and Greek battlefield carnage, his mind racing wildly.  
"Or just expose him" whispered Anders, his eyes slightly blank.  
Nyx, at the end of the hallway, turned around and stared at him.  
"So much power here...with so many demigods. Most of them will be expecting monsters."  
Nyx's eyes glazed over as well, but in a different way."Most of them have brought weapons" she confirmed after a moment.  
Anders' eyes were round with excitement. "They won't be able to defeat Krios for sure, but they can scare him off! And they'll sort of, I don't know, bond more, fighting off the same thing."  
"Yes, but the bombs." Nyx's voice was soft.  
Anders' smile vanished. Nyx had her eyes shut tightly, concentrating. her fists were clenched.  
"He's not expecting it, but if Krios is forced to fight, he'll... give the bombs...to Pallas."  
Anders stayed silent.  
"Pallas will set them..."  
"And Krios will surely flee at the last moment, being the coward he is."  
"Yes." Nyx's eyes opened, and she put a hand on the wall for support .  
Anders looked up. "Both of us can fight off Pallas together, right?"  
Nyx closed her eyes for what seemed like a second. "I...yes, I think so...he's very proud and young." "And much weaker than Krios" she added.  
Before she had opened her eyes Nyx found herself in Ander's crushing bear hug.  
"You're brilliant, Nyx."  
Nyx smiled weakly.  
"You're the one who came up with the ideas."  
Nyx pulled away. She looked exhausted, and Anders quickly slipped a small package labeled 'Grandma's Good Old Lemon-Toffee Bars' out of his silky suit pants pocket. He swiftly pulled out two caramel brown squares and handed them to Nyx, who slipped them into her mouth without question. As she swallowed, Anders anxiously wondered where Krios and Pallas were now. What little color her cheeks normally had flooded back into Nyx's face and she sighed and hugged Anders again.  
"Thanks."  
"Of course."  
"Now we have to-"  
And then, quite unexpectedly, Anders found her kissing him, his lips pressed to hers, and for a minute everything melted away. The number of times he had thought of this happening, it had been in sunny fields or a meadow, or walking back from school together, somewhere normal. But now, Krios and Pallas seemed like tiny insignificant ants from a view high above the topmost cloud, and the more he thought about it, he noticed that, quite pleasantly, nothing seemed to matter anymore, really, except that Nyx was here, with him. As long as it stayed like that, it didn't matter where they were, or who was watching, or what Krios and Pallas did. It didn't really matter if they skulked around in a parking lot with unfathomable boxes, or parked ugly cars in illegal spots, or blew up huge rooms full of demigods...  
It seemed like they both pulled away simultaneously. The horrible, cruel irony of that moment after what was to happen would fall upon Anders many times in the next months."You're right. We have to go stop them." Nyx whispered. Her green eyes were blazing fiercely.

Anders nodded and twisted his simple-gold linked chain bracelet on his left wrist down into his hand. As soon as it hit his palm, it glowed and spread out into a double-bladed axe. Anders frowned at it. It shifted to a golden-edged sword with a well-worn leather handle. Anders gripped the hilt and looked over at Nyx. She already had a cold, black, short Stygian ice cavalry sword in her hand. her eyes were still blazing. Anders felt her long, white fingers slip into his, and Nyx nodded once, dipping her head a fraction of an inch, answering Anders' unspoken question. There was a blur of wind, the blurred sound of whispers of air filling in a space where matter had once stood, and the wooden hallway doors swung shut in front of the empty space where the two had been a moment before.


	3. The Begginning of the End

I still wasn't absolutely sure she wasn't going to kill me. I think she had said something like "I'm not going to hurt you", although it was hard to understand what she was saying because she had a really thick accent. Either way, the look on her face stated that she'd like nothing better to take out her anger on a somewhat innocent kid who just happened to stumble on her feeding her pet ..pet...umm...pet bull-hippo-elephant-thing-with-weird-horn-ears-and-scary-looking-teeth. It was snarling lightly as she stroked it and shot annoyed glances back at me and every once in awhile saying things like "Keep up now" or "Come on". I still wasn't sure why I was following her, although I expect it was mostly because I was afraid she'd stab me with the short golden dagger she was clutching in the hand that wasn't petting the...um...hippo-bull-elephant-shark toothed-magical-horned...thing. I wanted to know what exactly that...um..thing was, but I honestly was too afraid to ask. The girl looked about 15, at least 2 years older than me, and had wavy, dirty-blonde hair, no makeup whatsoever, and more muscles than I had ever seen on a 15 year old girl, except for maybe in the Olympics. "Hurrrrrry up!" she snapped, rolling her r impatiently, and I tried to move my legs faster over the leafy ground. Perhaps I should back up. II was coming back from the bathroom when I had found her and the...thing ...in the school supply room, where the food was usually unloaded for the cafeteria. I had heard growling noises and went in to investigate, thinking maybe some raccoon had gotten in or something. Big mistake. The girl had freaked out when I came in, then tried to convince me that the animal _was_ a raccoon that had gotten in, like I couldn't see it, and then gave up told me to follow her. I didn't question her. The look on her face was enough for me to get down and roll on the ground if she told me to. We had walked out of the school and into the nearby woods, which were supposed to have been chopped down a long time ago, in plain view of multiple pedestrians, who had completely failed to notice the now-snarling thing and waved peacefully at us as we passed by. Somehow the girl _and_ the beast-thing both trod almost silently on the ground, while my footsteps were loud and crackly. I was trying to walk quieter, and didn't notice that the girl had stopped until I walked straight into her. She jumped back and hissed something at me. I wasn't sure what it was, but I was fairly certain it wasn't a compliment. Then the girl stroked her finger down a tree that had a triangular carving in it, and it glowed and a carved door popped open. I decided to make an attempt at friendly communication. "Look, my fourth hour is starting soon, and Ms. Lasanya gets kind of mad if you, um, don't, you know, be on time and stuff." I said. The girl blinked. "No lasagna. Follow me or Yale eat you."  
I had no desire to be eaten by a Yale, if that's what the boar-elephant-hippo-with-really-weird -moving horns was called, so I reluctantly followed her into the black tree hole.  
I felt something grab my arm and at first I thought it was the Yale finally trying to get away with eating me in the dark, so I kind of slapped it away. Not a good idea. The girl's hand curled in an iron grip around my arm, probably cutting off my blood flow, and pulled me through the dark.

We stopped in an empty, curved room like a sewer entrance with one dim, naked lightbulb hanging from the brick ceiling. The cylindrical walls had 6 doorways in them, all made out of different materials. The first one had a door made of white, shining marble and had two elegant columns carved into the sides of it that flared at the top. The third was nothing but a dark, rectangular hole in the wall. The fourth had a neat, wooden door with a granite doorknob. We went through the sixth doorway, which featured an aluminum door with concave dents in it, like someone had pounded it from the outside. I could swear I had heard the clink of a key falling on the ground and a faint double laugh during the short moment that the girl paused to consider which way to go, but that was pushed out of my mind after the girl kicked in the door rather than opening it as I noticed that we were in the dark again, and in another enjoyably long hallway. I was seriously doubting I'd be home in time for dinner when there was a light up ahead. The Yale snorted and from the dim light up ahead I was almost sure that I saw its horns swivel all the way backwards and then to the sides again. There was a narrow dirt passage leading, thankfully, up at the end of the hall, but I nearly groaned out loud as an archway appeared as we got closer. It was stone and had a rounded doorway that looked quite solid with another triangular mark on it. Once again the girl touched the doorway, it glowed, and popped open. She released her iron grip on me as soon as we went through the doorway, but I wasn't going to run away, because there was nowhere to run.


	4. The Hardest Journey

ALEX

As soon as we stepped through the stone door, bright sunlight hit my eyes, and I blinked a few times to get adjusted. When my eyes went back to normal, I noticed two things. One, we were at the top of a hill, overlooking an expansive, rural city-like place. The second was that a tall, dark-haired girl in full, bronze-colored armor, was pressing a spear tip to my throat.

I tried to push away the weapon but the girl barely noticed. She examined me curiously as she and the other girl had a quick exchange in some weird language. I noticed that the Yale-girl said one word a lot - it sounded like _greykus_. It probably meant something along the lines of 'moron' or 'idiot'. I looked around, or loked around the best I could with a spear on my neck, over the small...village? city? To the North lay rows of small, long and rectangular house-cabins. with red tile roofs. To the East, a small lake and village were visible. In the middle was a sort of plaza, with people milling around everywhere on the cobblestone streets. A large fountain sprayed in the between four huge, marble buildings, with columns and statues and gardens and red tile roofd and big, golden doors everywhere. In my direction, South, there was the hill I was standing on, and clusters of little buildings, all white with red on top, or cabin-like places with slte roofs. What looked like outdoor training places were set up all around a large dirt racetrack that was at the bottom of the hill. The West was obviously the nicest part of the entire place, expect maybe the plaza in the middle, feauturing a large, domed building with a circular hole in the roof of it, what looked like an enormous amphitheater, and thick, dark forest that stretched on for as far in that direction as I could see, and a series of long, narrow buildings, consistent with the white marble and red slate roof setup. A river flowed eastwards, with narrow dangerous-looking bridges built over it at regular intervals. A long, sturdy aqueduct made odd sounds to our right, winding up and around the hill, intermixing with the faint mass of voices that could be heard all the way up here. The aqueduct was built through every part of the entire Territory. This looked like a nice place to live, but I was amazed that the huge, dark forest that looked like it had been there since before America was inhabited hadn't been cut down. The trees gave off an overpowering aura of strength and life, and would make outstanding doors or benches or whatever you wanted to make out of them. It was nice to know that there was still one ancient forest somewhere that hadn't been comverted into a mall or condos. I felt the pressure on my neck go away, and I looked back over at the two girls, who seemed to be arguing now. but finally the one who had dragged me here turned and started down the hill with the Yale in tow. I stared at the bronze-plated girl in front of me. She had her helmet under her arm and was staring at me with equal intensity. Finally she spoke.  
"Who are you?"  
"I'm Alex" I supplied automatically.  
"Alex...?"  
"Elderson"  
I saw surprise in her eyes, but she quickly disguised it.  
"Not your last name, your full name" she chasitized.  
"Ummm..." was all I could think to say. What full name? My mom had always called me Alex, not Alexander. I wasn't sure what she was talking about. The girl almost looked dissappointed, and I felt bad.  
"What"-  
"Never mind, I just really thought you were...one of us. Anyway, I'm Naomi." she stuck out a pale white hand. I shook, partially mysified, and a little glad that now I knew someone here. "Come on, follow me" she said. I didn't question her, but it was mostly because she seemed friendly, and not about to kill me. Although 2 minutes ago she had a spear to my throat, but I sensed that it was more for security then something against me personally. We started walking down the hill towards the city.  
"You probably have alot of questions"  
"Yeah." I sighed. "I don't think many of them will get answered."  
She shrugged. "I'll try to answer them best I can"  
"Okay..." I decided to trust Naomi. She seemed alright. I started with the first question that popped into my mind.  
"Who was that girl with the...um, Yale thing?"  
Naomi smiled."I hope you don't have an impression of us based off of Val. She's usually alright, but today she was in one of her moods. That was Valida. Er, Valerie. She can get kind of...protective".  
"She must really like her, um, pet."  
"Oh, yes. That was an Ealai. He's been with her since she came here. We captured him in Ethiopia the same day Valerie arrived here. As soon as they saw each other...well, we thought the Ealai was just very hungry. But it turns out they have a real connection or something, because I've never seen one without the other."  
I nodded, and continued down the list. "What...is this place? And when am I getting out of here?"  
Naomi sighed and looked thoughtfully into the distance. "Probably not for a while, mostly since you can see me, the Yale, and this entire territory clearly. It's covered with the Mist, and most mortals see it as Retzer Nature Center."  
I saw no mist anywhere, and the hot, clear summer sun was shining down without a cloud in the sky."So if I pretend I can't see anything then can I get out of here?"  
Naomi laughed. "I wouldn't do that. Anyway, this is a great place. Some people can only come here for a few weeks every year, and they spend the whole time away dreaming about it."  
I thought Naomi was joking, but she looked serious. I looked around again. It did seem like a nice place...peaceful, friendly (for the most part), and secure. But I was starting to worry. My summer school teachers would be beyond angry if I missed their classes, and my mom would be out of her mind, thinking that I got kidnapped or something.  
"Can I call my mom?"  
Naomi looked at me sadly. "Not here, or now. Sorry, it's for your and everyone else's safety".  
I was very confused now. "Why?"  
Naomi sighed. "I don't know if I should be the one to explain this to you. Right now I'm taking you to Psamathe, who will give you the whole schpeil."  
"Please, Naomi."  
She gazed off towards the forest."If you insist...I don't understand everything here, but I'll try to explain. Okay, right now you're in Silvien Territory, although most people call this place Camp Silvien. Everyone who lives, learns, or willingly takes a breath in here is a Silvien.  
"So that means that I'm a, um, Silvien?"  
"For now."  
I didn't like the sound of that.  
"Silvien Territory is in Missouri, then?" I asked, trying to say something that sounded smart. Epic fail.  
"Er, no. Technically, you're in Wisconsin."  
I turned to look at her.  
There was no way we were in Wisconsin right now. It was just impossible. The school I had been in not even two hours ago ago was right next to the Mississippi River- in Missouri. I could tell Naomi was telling the truth, but I couldn't wrap my mind around it.  
Naomi must have snesed my confusion. "Wondering how you got here?"  
"Um, yeah."  
"This is gonna sound crazy to you, but you came in through the Labyrinth."  
"The Labyrinth? Like one of those maze thingies?"  
"No, we're talking about _the_ Labyrinth. You know, made by Daedalus. It's still in a certain state of disrepair after he collapsed it a few summers ago, but we've established a passageway from our entrance to , um, multiple places."  
"I was in _the_ Labyrinth?"  
"Yup."  
I was almost speechless. We had read about the Labyrnith in school before, but it was always in past tense. I had never even considered that it might still be there today, or that it even existed.  
"That's...that's pretty freaking awesome."  
"I'm surprised you haven't accused me of lying or run away screaming yet. I've had that happen before."  
"I thought about it at first, but then I'd probably be fed to the Yale or something."  
"But you don't think I'm lying?" Naomi sounded disbelieving.  
"I think you're telling the truth." I assured her,"But does this mean that-assuming this isn't some really weird dream-that everything, like, like myths and stuff, is real?"  
I winced. I had sounded like a kindergartener asking my mom if Santa existed. Naomi didn't seem to notice, and gazed thoughtfully into the distance. "In a certain respect, I suppose. I can tell you that I know for sure that the deities you see around here, in carvings, statues, etcetera, are very, very real."  
"So you mean like, Greek stuff?"  
"Not necessarily. Here we do not force you to believe in anything. We just show you what we know. Greek is part of it. On a whole, I have to say we look a little more Roman though. Everyone here can speak Latin, or at least understand it. Greek is much harder. But we don't make people stay here. Some campers leave for places of..other religion shortly after visiting us. We do not discriminate. But the real reason we're here is...well...it's a really long, complicated story. I think I'll let Psamathe tell you."  
"Who's Psamathe again?" I asked, unsure of whether Naomi had mentioned her already. All this information was spinning around in my head and crashing together, and I felt like my brain had reached its maximum information intake capacity.  
"She's the head praetor, Senate leader, and director of everything around here. She's actually a goddess of sand, believe it or not. Everyone used to think she was a daughter of Athena or, gods forbid, Artemis until she announced it."  
I was a little confused. "When am I going to meet her?"  
"I'm taking you to her right now, remember?"  
For the first time, I seriously considered running back up the hill, through the stone archway, and back into the Labyrinth. That brought me to another question I had.  
"Remind me again, why did you almost shove your spear into my throat?"  
Naomi laughed again. "I was on guard duty. The only way to get in here is through the Labyrinth, and we can't have anything unwanted coming into camp."  
"Am I unwanted then?"  
"We'll see. Don't worry about it for now." she said, in a worried tone.  
I wasn't very encouraged.  
We had reached the bottom of the hill already and were walking through the streets, Naomi's armor clinking softly as we quickly paced over the bumpy stone roads. Stands advertising things like "Darius' Chariots, Now Self-Pulling!" and "Amulets and Charms, Buy one Egyptian, get another one free!" lined the sides of the street. They were mostly empty, though, which I found strange, since the sun was high in the sky. In fact, the streets were deserted. All the people I had seen not even 10 minutes ago were gone.  
"Where'd they all go?" I asked.  
"Everyone's at lunch right now. I suppose you're hungry, but you're going to have to wait until dinner. If you're late to lunch, you don't get anything. Sorry. I have some carrots, if you want." she said apologetically, pulling out a Ziplock bag of long orange sticks chopped in half I shook my head.  
"I'll be fine, but thanks."  
"Okay, suit yourself." she shrugged, and popped a carrot into her mouth, crunching it loudly. Finally we rounded a corner and emerged into the large plaza in the middle of everything I had seen from the hill. Somehow it seemed even bigger from the ground. There were a few people milling around, but they were all pretty depressing to look at. I saw a teenage boy about 3 years older than me in a dark black-blue silk suit sitting on a stone bench, head in his hands. Next to the big building with columns that reminded me of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, a girl with choppy, ragged hair and a loose black dress on expertly twisted something long and sharp-looking between her fingers, watching me curiously from across the plaza. We neared the columned building and I started getting nervous. What would happen in there? Was this just some wild dream, or was this really true? Was this all a joke? I could tell that this part of Silvien Territory was not meant to be a friendly place. I felt like I was going to my own execution. If this was a joke, it was an expertly, madly made one. I It was all very fascinating, but I really wished I could go back to school, see something familiar and normal. I hadn't realized that I had stopped until Naomi was 5 yards in front of me. She turned around and looked back at me with concern. "Are you okay?"  
I swallowed. "Yeah. Come on."  
She opened her mouth like she was going to protest but then nodded, took another bite of her carrot, and kept walking. We ascended up the marble steps as Naomi nodded a silent greeting to the girl in black, then pushed open a set of enormous wooden doors with golden handles and we stepped inside.  
It felt like a library, with the rush of hushed whispers and quiet footsteps everywhere. Inside it was almost all white and grey, marble and granite, with an occasional glint of gold or creak of wood. There were balconies surrounding the entrance area and elegant stairs leading up to top levels, but we headed for a small door on the right. I heard rushing water from a fountain intermixing with the low voices. We stepped through the small door and the tension stretched into a horrible silence that drowned out even the soft clinking of Naomi's armor, and I felt compelled to say something, anything, to break the silence, and thought desperately back to the trench of questions I had from the first step in this place, which all seemed to have evaporated.  
"Hey, Naomi?"  
I flinched at how intimidated my voice sounded.  
"Yes, Alex?"  
"Er...what's a...um... greykus?"  
"You mean _grecus_?"  
"Umm...yeah."  
"It means, literally, a Greek, although it's meant to be offensive when said like that."  
"Oh."  
Naomi realized too late why I had asked.  
"Errr, it can also mean foreigner, or stranger of sorts. It doesn't have to be a bad thing."  
"Sure. Are we almost there?"  
"Nearly."  
There was an apologetic tone in her voice, but nerves jumping in my stomach stopped me from saying anything else. I was starting to wish I had never looked in to see if there was a raccoon in the supply room or not when we came to a golden door engraved with many, many scenes, so small I would have to almost literally press my eyes to the door to see them. I paused uncertainly, but the doors swung open and I followed her into yet another short, narrow hallway. This one lasted about 3 seconds before opening into a spacious garden. My nerves were temporarily muffled as I felt somewhat calmer, and more at peace as background noises presented themselves in the form of birds chirping and water running somewhere. Sunlight beamed down through the short trees. Marble white benches sat clustered around tables alongside a stone walkway. I gazed wistfully backwards as Naomi prodded me into a door I hadn't noticed and it closed behind me with an echoing bang. Why did I get only about 2 seconds in that garden when most of my morning had been spent walking down long, dark hallways? I looked around the spacious grey-black granite room, wishing desperately that I was anywhere but here right now, nerves churning my stomach into a tsunami, before a woman's voice, dripping with a mixed british-something accent I couldn't quite identify and that nearly surprised me out of my skin said "Congratulations. You're done with the hardest part."


	5. Coming Together

NAOMI

NAOMI took the shortcut back to the plaza, flinging her carrot up and watching it spin back down before catching it and taking another bite. She knew she wouldn't drop it. Naomi hated going through the halls to Psamathe's meeting room, and she knew that they were built to be unpleasant, to test the internal will of newcomers, and to see if they were really able to become loyal Silvien. At several points she had been sorely tempted to mention this to Alex because he looked so nervous, but a sense of duty, not to mention Psamathe's certain anger, prevented her from saying anything unless he asked her a direct question. She knew what Alex would be like after he got out of the debrief - stunned or excited, depending on how much this shocked him. She had led many people through those halls, and she remembered the first time she met Psamathe to learn exactly who and what the Silvien were,and more importantly, why they existed. As Naomi stepped out of the c_onventus aedificium _and breathed in the fresh air gratefully, she noticed a bench where a dark-suited and dark-haired, handsome teenage boy and a familiar, firmly built girl with square rimmed glasses twirling around her finger and a black dress sat. It wasn't the same girl Naomi had greeted earlier, when she was leading Alex to the meeting and briefing room, but a grin spread across her face. She preferred this girl. As Naomi directed her feet towards the bench, she looked up at the sky, trying to determine whether there was even a slight chance of rain. Resultantly, she nearly crashed into a statue of Nike, painfully reminding her of the quest she desperately wished she could go on. It would be her first one, despite the long time she had stayed with the , finally, she could become a Senator. Naomi had reached the bench, and, swallowing the last of her carrot, she sat down on the bench next to the brown-haired girl who was now flipping her glasses into the air and catching them mid-fall on her finger again.  
"Hey Anders" Naomi directed her greeting towards the suited boy, with his head in his hands, shoulders slumped over.  
The girl in the dress huffed. "Yeah, I'm just part of the outdoor decor here, don't mind me."  
Naomi grinned. "Hi Andra." "What's up, Nomes?" "I was worried about Anders." "Well, worry no more. He's gone bonkers."  
Over on the left side of the bench, Anders groaned. Andra smiled slyly. "I'm fine." he muttered. "Mmm-hmm. Toldja he's crazy." Andra folded her muscled arms and rose from the bench, rolling her eyes. "Go ahead, talk to him. I need to get out of this horrible dress and then we gotta go to the emergency Senate meeting. I'll grab your toga, Anders." She flipped her glasses nearly ten feet into the air, caught them again on her finger, and walked off. Naomi watched as Andra teetered in her tall, black heels and then slipped them off, chucked them into a nearby fountain, and proceeded barefoot down a walkway and out of sight. Anders chuckled darkly.  
"Who got her to wear the heels?"  
"I'm not sure. She wore her Adidas sports sandals for half the funeral, though. Everyone kept staring at us." "Andra is a special person."  
"Never met anyone like her. And she hasn't said a single useless word of comfort yet, and that's the first thing people do now whenever they see me."  
Naomi stayed quiet. Anders looked up. "What do you want, Naomi?"  
"I want you to go back to...to normal!"  
He laughed again, humorlessly.  
"I'm sorry. I can't do that."  
"If you really loved her"-  
"Nyx is gone. I never said goodbye."  
"That's what funerals are for."  
"It's not the same."  
Naomi sighed in frustration. Andra chose that moment to reappear at the far end of the plaza, in a faded white toga draped around her expertly with a purple stripe running down the side of the cloth, even to the part folded over her arm. She had a black hobo bag slung over her shoulder that said 'EPIC FAIL' in bright orange letters on the side, and was still tossing her glasses to ridiculously high heights and catching them on one finger. A clanking owl amulet hung around her neck, and her brown hair was in a low-slung ponytail pushed back by a solid black headband. Naomi retreated into a thoughtful silence as Andra neared them. "Hey, Anders! I just thought of something, if it helps...YO, STELLA!"  
A girl in a regal black dress with startling green eyes looked up from halfway across the plaza, leaning on a column of the _conventus aedificium_.  
"CAN YOU COME HERE A MO'?" Andra yelled. Her voice echoed across the plaza. Stella shrugged , nodded, and started walking over. Anders looked up, deep grey eyes bloodshot around the rim.  
'What are you doing, Andra?"  
"Helping you get your life back into shape...heyyyy, Stella!"  
The green eyed girl stopped a few feet away from the bench.  
"Hi Andra. Naomi, Anders." Naomi nodded a greeting. Andra leaned against a nearby statue featuring the skinny form of Theseus, in full battle armor and helmet under his arm with a sword sticking out of it. "Anders here is in need of a little Underworld chat. Do you think you could extract a ghostie or two tonight for him to talk to? He's already going bananas, and you're the only one I know who can do it."  
Stella studied Anders knowingly.  
"Okay, meet me by the woods, 11 o'clock."  
"Thank you" said Anders hoarsely, and put his head in his hands again. Stella nodded and walked off. Andra hummed a funeral march idly for a few seconds. Then, a lot of things happened in a very small amount of time.

An extremely loud _shhhhhhhhing_! noise came from their right, amplified greatly by the nearly empty plaza. Naomi jumped to her feet, armor clanking, spear raised, as Andra spluttered an extensive string of curses rather vehemently in a mixture of Greek and English. Anders looked up, a double bladed axe carved with skulls and wicked designs automatically in his hand, and Stella was in a hunters crouch at the bottom of her column. At the bottom of the steps leading up to the _conventus aedificium_, a brown-haired, gangly teenage boy was holding a bronze sword, gleaming in the sunlight, free of dents or scratches, and obviously brand new. He turned his weapon around, nearly dropping it, and then tapped it several times with his wrist before it shrunk back into a simple, sparkling, very thin bronze bracelet. Anders glared at his own weapon, which emitted a faint whimpering sounds and molded itself back into a thick linked chain around his wrist. Naomi, still a little in shock, stared at the boy at the bottom of the steps blankly, spear still halfway raised. He started walking towards the group of teens, and Andra flipped her glasses twenty feet into the air, where they landed on the hilt of the sword sticking out from Theseus' helmet. After employing a few choice swears, she withdrew into an intimidating silence as the boy drew nearer. Naomi finally recognized him - it was Alex! Except he looked more confident, and much more at peace than he had when she had first seen him. She lowered her spear and nodded at him.  
"Hi." he said uncertainly, glancing at the others.  
"Hi." Naomi looked around at her other friends. Anders was watching Alex with a prick of curiosity in his grieving stare, like Alex was a minorly entertaining TV show. Andra was rummaging around in her bag, no doubt trying to find something to knock down her glasses. Naomi cleared her throat.  
"Hey guys, this is, er, Alex"  
Andra deserted her bag on the bench and stood up, hand extended.  
"I'm Andra" Alex shook, and then his eyes widened inexplicably for a fraction of a second. Naomi thought she was imagining things. Andra withdrew her hand and glanced scornfully at Anders."Annnnd that's Anders, who's usually fun to be around, but is starting to lose it because his non-official girlfriend got stabbed by a dimwitted god and died, and for some reason he blames himself." Anders grimaced, nodded a greeting, and looked back down, while Andra threw an apologetic glance at Alex.  
"Nice toga." Alex remarked. Andra scowled at it.  
"I hate wearing them, but we have to whenever there's a Senate meeting for some reason."  
"Senate meeting?"  
"Yeah. I have no clue why I'm a Senator, but whenever there's a problem, we get together with Psamathe and the other praetors"-  
"There's more than one?"  
"Gods, did Psamathe tell you anything at all? Praetors are the people who do the big stuff around here, but they're also the directors and some are teachers, even though they're our age. Anyway, whenever there's something to be discussed, we all go and talk about it, and make decisions and whatnot. Other than that, we meet a few times a month for standard stuff. It's pretty cool though, you gotta be there to see it."  
Naomi listened rapturously, her heart burning with desire to finally get to be a Senator and not a subject in a Senate meeting.  
"I will." said Alex. It was the last thing he was expected to say. Everyone turned to look at him. Even Anders looked up.  
"What?" said Naomi, her voice blasting through two octaves.  
Alex stated firmly "Psamathe said I'm going to this meeting. And so are you."


	6. Explanations

Andra saw, the muddled, attempted-to-be-hidden jealousy in Naomi's eyes melt to a disbelieving hope. That girl really would give anything to become a Senator.  
"Really? Why?" asked Naomi. Andra could practically see her hopes of becoming a Senator extinguished as she thought it out. If Alex was coming along too, it meant that they were not going to that meeting to become Senators."Ummm...No idea." Alex said unconvincingly. Andra squinted at him. Psamathe had probably told him something, but not the whole story, or he would surely spill the beans to Naomi, just to assure her that she was closer to becoming a Senator than she thought. Anywho, Andra knew exactly why, and that was the reason she had multiple things other than Anders' toga and her glasses in her bag. She decided it was time to steer the conversation out of dangerous waters. Andra turned to Alex and leaned back against Theseus again.  
"So, Alex, what do you think of this place? And the truth, please, while Psamathe isn't here breathing down our necks." Andra watched his face carefully as Alex gazed towards the _conventus aedificium_.  
"This place is...pretty cool. I'm just still not sure why _I'm_ here. Psamathe said that most of us are demi gods or nature spirits. She said I'm not an export, although if I caused too much trouble I might be shipped off to Camp...Half something because my blood is 'very Greek'. Although I thought Naomi said the Silvien don't discriminate..." he trailed off, a note of accusation in his voice. Naomi hastily intervened. Andra could tell that Naomi thought Alex had a bad impression of her. Maybe he did, if the stories were true, and Valerie and her crazy Yale had dragged him here.

"Well, if you're an all Greek half-blood - or nature spirit, or whatever, or an all-Roman one, or very, very close -putting aside the fact that you might be an export, although you're obviously not, or you would be gone by now-you don't fit in here. Most of us are descendants of mixtures of spirits, demigods, or sometimes gods or goddesses themselves. Roman blood and Greek blood don't get along, but if the blood's split mostly even, then it's just fine. Usually. We don't discriminate, whether you are a little more Roman or a little more Greek."  
Alex looked slightly confused, but he nodded.  
"What are you then?" he asked. Andra shrugged. She had suspicions, but she wasn't about to share them. "I'm not a full demigod or a full nature spirit. Other than that, I don't know what I am."  
Alex looked at Naomi. She crossed her legs, which made the armor screech as the plates slid against each other.  
"Okay...Aura and Satyr have rare male dryad child. Dryad has child with mortal. I'm a half-nymph."she explained.  
"Maybe Andra's a half-nymph" speculated Alex.  
There was a moment of silence, and then Andra and Anders, despite his temporary depression, burst out laughing. Naomi smiled weakly and gave Alex a I-will-explain-later look.

After their laughs died off, Alex looked at Anders significantly. Anders sighed.  
"To make a long story short, Apollo-my dad-went places he wasn't supposed to and did things he shouldn't have. No mortals involved."

"Wait-wouldn't you be a god or something then?" asked Alex.  
Andra grinned. She loved it when people found out that one of her best friends was a god. Sort of.  
"Basically, he's a minor, unofficial god who was pretty much treated like a demigod until they found out his mother was a goddess. Then something weird happened-Anders got stuck in a vortex of time or life or something and when he came back he wasn't immortal anymore. Well, not fully. Anders is just weird." she explained.

Andra spotted Naomi gazing at the sky again, looking for even a wisp of a cloud, but in vain. There was no chance of rain, the very thing everyone knew Naomi loved most.  
"No rain today, but tomorrow for sure, Nomes." Andra told her. A dull voice from the back of her head that usually reminded her of things she didn't want to be reminded of whined, and Andra remembered why she had come back here in the first place. "Hey, Anders, here's your toga...you might wanna change fast, the meeting's really soon."

Anders stood, accepted the faded bundle of white and purple, and trudged off. Naomi looked after him sadly. She hated it when others were sad, and it was just something Andra didn't quite understand. If they wanted to be sad, let them be sad...although she had to admit, Anders was no fun when all he would do is sit and moan all day.  
"Happy guy." Alex remarked sarcastically, almost as if he were reading Andra's mind. Andra shrugged.  
"He'll learn to live with it. Anders isn't a killer, unless you give him a real good reason to. He better get over it soon." Alex shivered the slightest bit, and Andra looked up to where her glasses were hanging from Theseus' sword. She cleared her throat loudly at the marble statue and grinned when she caught Alex's bewildered smile as the statue tilted the sword-helmet a fraction of an inch and the glasses came tumbling down. Andra caught them in her palm, and as soon as they hit, they molded into a foot-long, ultra-sharp sword. Andra muttered something and they changed back into glasses, which she shoved in her bag on the bench. Naomi piped up randomly from the bench.  
"Hey Alex, before you hear anything bad about either camp from anyone but Psamathe, tell us - if you could go to either camp, which one would you choose?"

Andra's mind immediately started pondering, even though the quesiton wasn't directed at her. It _was_ a common Truth or Dare question at Silvien slumber parties , yet Andra never remembered answering the question, or at least answering it honestly and not as a joke. There was always the Option C of being an export, but no-one knew much about exports anyway, so that option was usually excluded. Exports were odd, and never stayed for long, but instead used Camp Silviens as a 'bridge' to get to where they belonged. Egyptians, Polish, Norwegians, or Russians, they all went off somewhere where they could believe whatever it was that they wanted to believe. No-one really wanted to be an export. Camp Half-Blood was the more relaxed camp, but that was mostly because of their lazy director, Dionysus. The Silviens often had to contact Zeus to tell him to keep an eye on his irresponsible son. Camp Half-Blood was split into cabins for godly parents, though, and that was a lot more comfortable than the cohorts at Camp Jupiter. Their sad attempt at a strategy game, Capture the Flag, was admittedly foolish, and fun. It was also a great chance to make allies and bond within the camp. Camp Jupiter had firmer, stronger deities, and rules, but they goofed off a lot too. They also were into war-always fighting someone, holding Senate meetings about every little thing, and with that goofy Oracle obsession they had, Octavian...Andra would hate to be one of those campers who had no choice, though, one of those who had too much greek blood or too much roman and were shipped off to their respective camp in some inconspicuous manner, memories of the Silviens wiped from their brains. Most people said they would rather stay on Silvien territory. Camp Silviens _was_ built for peace, to make sure that the two camps never went to battle with each on the opposing side, because that would be the biggest war of the millennia, that would result in horrible carnage, lives being lost, and be worse than the Titan War and everything that came after it combined. Or so the prophecy said. Andra didn't know which prophecy, made when, or where, but there was _the _prophecy, and apparently it was not to be any case, Andra thought, even though sometimes fighting was fun, a war between the two camps was unspeakable, and the Silvien would not let it happen, and continue keeping the peace from the shadows, as they had been doing for the past centuries, and would continue to do for years to come. Just then, a clock chimed, Anders materialized in a toga similar to Andra's on the other side of the plaza, and floods of people came rushing out of buildings and streets all around them.


	7. The Warning

ALEX

Psamathe, with her aura of power and always-ready-for-action outfit, was one of the most impressive, and intimidating, things Alex had seen in Camp Silviens already. Once she had explained to him what he was expected to do and where to go on a daily basis, how everything worked around here, and why the Silviens were here in the first place, he found this place more fascinating than frightening. Everything was pretty cool, including his new friends. Alex felt bad for Anders, who seemed like a part of him was gone. Alex thought he would be cool to hang around when he got up and over the depression, and he suspected that Anders' survivor's guilt was part of it. Naomi was kind of hard to perceive through her armor, which surprisingly drew little attention as they walked through the hordes of teens, most of them in forest-green tees, and some in the occasional toga, but when Alex asked, Naomi admitted was a little uncomfortable to wear for more than 2 hours straight. And Andra was...interesting. The jolt that had run through him when they shook hands though, like an electric current, rooting him to the ground and flowing energy into him from the air...it almost scared him. She seemed like a great person to be around, and, along with Naomi, was probably one of the only girls he could really talk to and laugh with, and not just chat awkwardly. He enjoyed being with all three of them, because they had a sense of community and friendship that he was allowed into. Well, maybe except Anders; but he would come around. But what Psamathe had said, about him, Naomi, and Andra going on a quest that would change the future for either better or much, much worse...why him? He had just gotten here! Alex didn't think that he was that special-for gods' sake, he could barely hold his sword! He suspected that Andra knew much more than he did about the alleged quest, with the way she had casually changed the subject and moved on when he had brought up the topic. Although Psamathe had also said he should be glad he was so willing to believe. Alex wasn't so sure, though. He had always been able to see weird things, like birds with human heads perched on rooftops, but whenever he pointed them out to others, they laughed and said he was imagining things. But what Alex really wished was that he could find out what he really was. He felt that once he knew that, everything else would slowly unfold. Andra prodded him in the back as a bushel of giggling girls with stunning makeup and long eyelashes smiled at him as they passed.  
"Hey, we're going to stop inside here to let Nomes take off her armor, she said it's getting really annoying and her guard duty was over before lunch." Andra had to raise her voice to be heard. Alex nodded and she grabbed his arm and led him into a small shop advertising ridiculous things like fortune telling, crystal balls guaranteed to let you have a glimpse of your future or all money back, and tea leaves that changed color according to your mood. Naomi stalked off towards the bathroom door next to a doorway concealed with deep purple drapes, and Andra plopped down in a "rhythmic massage !" chair and slid a few very large silver coins out of her pocket, frowned at the coin slot, exchanged them for bigger, golden coins, and inserted two of those. It started beating her back and she sighed in relief. Anders said "bathroom" and slipped silently into the small wooden door across the room. Quiet, off-sounding music played in the corners of the small room. Andra closed her eyes. "Ahh-hh-hh-hh-hh-hh-hh this fee-ee-ee-lls goo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-dd-dd-d" she announced. This was the perfect opportunity to ask about the quest, Alex thought...when else would he have the chance to be alone with Andra?  
"Andra..." he started.  
"Whaaa-aaat?" she replied, eyes still closed. Alex shifted his weight nervously. Should he ask? She might get mad, and then their possible friendship would be off. He exhaled and shook his head.  
"I know you know something about the quest."  
Her deep brown eyes opened, only to narrow at him. "Ree-eee-aaa-ll-lll-ll-llyy-y."  
He grimaced. Something inside the chair whirred and it stopped massaging for a second. She lowered her voice. "How do you know?"  
"Er, well, I guess I'm good at reading expressions or something." The chair had started pounding again.  
"Ta-aa-kke myy-yy-y adv-i-i-ce Al-ll-ee-e-e-x. You-u-u-uu donnn-t-t wann-n-t to kno-o-ow w-w-www." "Know about the quest? If I'm going to go on it, I want as much information as I can get."  
"No-ot wha-aa-aat I-I-I me-e-e-e-e-ean." the chair squeaked and shut down, and then beeped and spelled out something in a different language Alex couldn't read, probably asking for more money. Andra opened her eyes and leaned forward. Her owl amulet clanked and swung from her neck.  
"Alex, I know things about this quest I'm not supposed to know. And a...trustworthy source told me that...well, from what I can understand, something bad will happen soon, and the result of that something will change the future for better or worse. I put two and two together. I think the quest isn't going to turn out well, but I'm not sure whether there's even going to be one, or when, or where, with whom, and why."  
"Okay." Alex said. His mind was racing. Something bad happening...changing the future...source?  
"Wait, what source?" A knowing gleam struck in Andra's eyes.  
"No telling, but I talked to the Oracle."  
"The Oracle?" Alex's mind went into hyperdrive. Hadn't he heard about the Oracle somewhere? He couldn't recall what it was.  
"What's the Oracle again?"  
Andra rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you don't know about-"  
Alex's mind went blank when Naomi came out of the bathroom, because at first he didn't recognize her.  
Naomi was a lot more beautiful than her armor had suggested. Her dark green shirt with the plain white lettering, CAMP SILVIENS, fit her perfectly, and brought out the crystalline green in her murky eyes. Her jean cut-offs were plain but accented the shirt nicely, and white sandals with dark brown laces winding around her foot distracted from three ankle bracelets on her right ankle. Her dark hair was tucked in a low ponytail, and even though she wore no makeup, she looked very nice. She carried a hunk of golden armor in her right hand, which seemed lighter than it looked. Andra stood. "Wow, you were done before Anders. I thought boys were supposed to be able to pee really fa-"  
Anders emerged form the bathroom, looking exactly how he had when he came in. Not one fold on his toga was misplaced. Alex noted that he could probably look quite nice in a better mood.  
"What were you doing in there? I can barely walk without my tripping over my toga or it coming unfolded, and he can _pee_ with it perfectly in place?" Andra said exasperatedly. Alex grinned. He didn't know why Anders went in the bathroom, but it obviously wasn't to use its facilities.  
"Come on, let's go" said Naomi, in a voice pitched with excitement and nerves. Alex saw Anders' eyes flicker to the wall clock shaped like a ruby-encrusted owl - the emergency Senate meeting must be very soon. Then Alex was distracted when he noticed something extremely negative flash through Andra's eyes as she turned her eyes from Naomi to look at him. He looked down. Did he do something wrong? Alex was relieved when Andra seemed to shake whatever bothering thought she had had off as she led everyone through the door and into the emptying streets. He definetely didn't want Andra as an enemy.


	8. The Meeting

NAOMI

The Senate House was not as large as most people thought it would be, but Naomi felt like it had grown since the last (and only) time she had been there. It was large enough to make someone feel intimidated if they walked in for the first time, though, although that was probably how it was supposed to feel. Small masses of white robed - occasionally with one vertical, purple stripe running down the side- teenage kids, talking, laughing, and chatting slowly flowed into the house and took their seats. Most greeted Andra, or Anders, who seemed to be a higher ranked Senator, and Valida gave her a cheery wave as she walked past, then turned to her friend on her right and continued chattering quickly in Latin. She seemed to have gotten over whatever had been frustrating her this morning. Naomi spotted a few ridiculously long strands of Yale's fur clung to her toga. A few others glanced at or greeted Naomi as they passed, wondering why the well-known, but non-Senator half-nymph was at the meeting. Most of the passerby stared at Alex, though, who was looking up at the paneled and artistically decorated ceiling in wonder. Naomi followed Andra at first, but then Andra turned around and pointed at a row of chairs in the front.  
"You sit there, Nomes. Oh, and take Alex with you too." Andra had to raise her voice again over the excited chatter of everyone else. Naomi nodded, grabbed Alex's sleeve, and made her way to the front row.  
"Nice seats" Alex commented. Naomi nodded silently. There were nerves jumping around in her stomach, and she looked around the dim room to try to distract herself. Directly in front of her was a large wooden stage-like place, minus the curtains. The stage was the only place with lighting, and the seats got dimmer with every row. The corners of the room were so dark that Naomi could only make out the silhouettes of the people taking their seats there. There was no one else sitting in the first two rows, but other than that, Naomi couldn't see many other empty seats. At the back of the stage in front of her sat two rows of raised seats, curved in a semi circle, and shrouded in shadows. Naomi spotted who she was pretty sure was Anders in the front, even in the low lighting, and wanted to wave, but her hands seemed to be frozen and clenched to the metallic armrests. The rows of seats she was at the front of were all parallel and straight, stretching to the back of the room. On the sides there were more rows of seats, but narrower, and small desks were attached to the sides of the armrests that could swing up to be used and fold back down if they were not needed. Naomi jumped when Alex tapped her on the shoulder.  
"Why so nervous?" His brown eyes gleamed humorously. Naomi frowned.  
"Aren't you even a little nervous?" she asked disbelievingly.  
Alex shrugged. "Not really. I think my nerves are too tired to work anymore today. They've been working pretty much all day. "  
Naomi had almost forgotten that he had just taken his first walk through the endless hallways to his first meeting with Psamathe, where she decided whether to clear your memory of the Silvien and send you away or not. Of course, in comparison, this Senate meeting would seem more interesting than nerve-wracking to him. Alex was just about to say something when a hush fell over the room. Naomi's nerves danced wildly in her stomach as she looked forward.  
Psamathe strode briskly from some hidden doorway on the right out onto the stage. Her robes seemed more natural on her than anyone else in the room, fitting her perfectly, enhancing her clear, tanned skin, and giving her an elegant, powerful stature. Her dark brown hair was wrapped in a bun, with a thin, golden net-like piece keeping it in place. Her legendary silvery sandstone weapon-morph bracelet clung to her wrist tightly, and her flickering, unnaturally golden eyes were unreadable and mysterious. As usual, she gave off an extreme aura of authority. There was a small podium to the right with a microphone laying across it, but Psamathe's voice was loud and clear enough that it was heard through the room without anything to help it.  
"This is a Emergency meeting for a non-camper requested quest issued by the Oracle. Skyler will give details about who is to go and such." she announced, voice tainted with that strange accent that Naomi still couldn't identify. Naomi glanced sideways at Alex, who was leaned forward in his chair. Psamathe stalked off to a center seat in the semi-circle of rows at the back of the stage. Up at the front of the stage, a pretty girl with blonde, wavy hair and rimless glasses rose from the seat beside Anders' and walked up to the podium. Unlike Psamathe, she had to use the microphone to broadcast her pleasantly silvery voice.  
"Yesterday, news arrived that the teenage girl whom the Oracle inhibits has delivered a prophecy. We have good reason to believe this is true, and multiple witnesses and other sources. The prophecy spoke of the ones who remained strong and did not fight in the Titan's army for both the second Titan War and the Giant's War rising up in surreptitiously." Naomi groaned silently. She had forgotten that Skyler like to use big words.  
"The Oracle has issued three to go on a quest to recover an item that has been stolen. The stolen object is unidentified but apparently crucial. The prophecy also warned that 'chaos must be taken back' as well, but we have not deciphered the meaning of that particular line." Skyler looked stressed - she was known for having all the facts, and hated not knowing things. "The three who have yet to go on the quest have been determined…" Naomi lost track as Alex leaned over and whispered "What's the Oracle?"  
"Shhh..I'll explain later" Naomi whispered out of the corner of her mouth. She tuned back in to Skyler.  
"…so therefore we can easily identify the quest leader to be of cabin number 3"-  
She was cut off by a lot of loud and raucous cheering, supposedly from the 3rd cabin. Mostly everyone else smiled or nodded at the 3rd cabin members, who were scattered in clumps among the audience, now sitting back down, jubilant that their cabin would get to be recognized for the duration of the quest. They were all confident that the leader, whoever it would be, would make the quest a success. Naomi was momentarily confused why no one but her was eyeing the cabin members wistfully, wishing that they had been the ones chosen as the quest leader, when she remembered that all of these people had gone on at least one quest before, because they were all Senators. Naomi's stomach felt full of lead as she desperately wished she had been placed in the third cabin, instead of the sixth. Campers were generally sorted into cabins depending partially on their rank, partially on their personality, and on mostly on their background- there were 14 other half-nymphs in camp, and all but 3 were in the sixth cabin. The third cabin was supposedly made up of a mix of Senators and roamers who were not demigods and were strong physically and mentally, but not necessarily geniuses-just able to withstand mental pressure. Naomi knew she would never have a chance of getting into that camp-there was hardly a muscle on her body, even though she was a good swordfighter. After learning sword fighting for about half of the long years she had been here, she had switched to healing. Naomi preferred healing to fighting any day; she'd much rather help people than make them hurt, no matter who they were.  
Skyler continued on as if nothing had happened, and everyone listened to hear who else would be going on the quest.  
"The quest leader will be determined out of cabin three with the standard tests and contests, which will take place in the eighth arena tonight."  
Skyler looked uncomfortably wary, like she wouldn't want to be the quest leader, even if she had been in cabin three _and_ passed all the tests. Naomi sensed there was something she was keeping from the Senate, and she was about to point this out to Alex when Skyler hurriedly continued "The second to join the quest has been decreed by the Fates."  
Someone hissed quietly when she said 'Fates' and Naomi was pretty sure it was Andra - Andra _hated_ the fates. They were, in her opinion, on immortal enemy terms. The only thing Naomi knew about it was that it had something to do with her last quest, which apparently was the only one she had ever been on, and on which two people had died. Naomi glanced sideways at Alex again, but he seemed to know what the Fates were, because he looked collected and mildly interested, probably the opposite of what she herself looked like now-rapturously listening, clinging to every word Skyler said, and wishing that she would be the one to go…  
"They have asked specifically for a camper who had not been placed in any cabin, and is not aware of her-sorry, their-heritage, and essentially does not know who they really are. This is so that one point of the prophecy, mentioning discovery and a new addition, can be automatically fulfilled in a way we can control and so that we can also have assurance that that particular aspect of the prophecy does not come out in a way that would be undesirable."  
Although her speech was complicated, it was clear from Skyler's slip-up that she hoped it was a girl who would join the quest. The lead feeling in Naomi's stomach grew. A new, clueless addition - she was not going to be the second member of the quest. Naomi looked over at Alex almost subconsciously, as if this was a funny part in a movie and she had to share a smile. His eyes were wide, and he looked – as usual- rather confused. Naomi realized that he fit the description of the second quest member perfectly. It seemed like he wasn't sure whether to be glad, nervous, grateful, or worried. Naomi felt a flicker of frustration under the desperate hope and ready-to-burst layers of disappointment that seemed to be building up in her stomach. It just wasn't fair, that Alex got to go on a quest right after he joined, and Naomi had waited years since the young age she had finally come here. It didn't matter that they were often dangerous and sometimes deadly- a quest was an achievement that unlocked new things at camp, not to mention respect. There was no guarantee that it would be Alex, though-there were a few campers who still didn't know their heritage, and were sleeping in the enormous guesthouses while they waited and researched. And a new camper could be walking through the Labyrinth entrance right now, for all Naomi knew, although it wasn't very likely . But if there was, Naomi thought, she would rather him go than anyone else-although the idea of him becoming a Senator before her was nearly unbearable, even though you had to be loyal to the Silvien for at least a year, which meant you stayed at camp at least for 2 weeks every year, and checked in monthly through Skype, which every Silvien had set up on their phones, computers, or local libraries. It also meant not spilling the biggest secret everyone had to keep-that the Silvien even existed.  
If word leaked out to either Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter-no one wanted to even think about the consequences.  
The camps would be furious that someone had kept them apart for all the years, and that the Silvien had never declared themselves, and that Romans and Greeks were living, eating, and breathing together somewhere outside of the two camps! And certainly one of them would see the Silvien as a possible threat or even competition. Everything would break loose from there, and the main goal of the Silvien- to keep peace between the two camps and get demigods, nature spirits, descendants of both, and exports on their way to wherever they would fit in and feel most comfortable in the world, for at least two weeks a year, would fail.  
If a single camper even gave the tiniest hint that there had always been someone else, the Silvien had to issue major, secretive quests to cover it up, and the camper would be either severely warned and have 'sanctions' on them, like extra kitchen duty, bathroom cleaning, and stable mucking, or if they had tried to leak the secret because they were rebelling against the Silvien for some reason(it had only happened once), then their minds would be wiped and they would be sent home with an 'expelled' report from 'Golden Forest Boarding School', which was the alibi for the Silvien – a summer camp and boarding school for 'special' kids .  
Every camper(the rebellion incident was committed by a lunatic great-grandson of Dionysus) greatly enjoyed being with the Silviens, because it was somewhere where they felt they could relate, belong, and do things that would never be possible in the mortal world, and everyone was careful not to give even a hint that it existed.  
Up on the stage, Skyler briskly walked to the semicircle rows of seats by some unspoken order and a shadowy figure leaned forward to whisper something in her ear, shaking its head. Quiet whispers rose up from the audience, and Naomi noticed that in the front row, Anders seemed to be falling asleep, and Naomi stifled a laugh with her hand. Alex looked over at her bewilderedly and she whispered "Anders" He looked over and snickered. The girl Andra had called over on the plaza earlier, Stella, was sitting next to Anders and twirling a lock of black hair around her finger. She looked mildly bored. Skyler now seemed to be apologizing for something as the shadowy figure talked. After a few seconds, she nodded, said something, and looked up. The whispers died down as she approached the podium again, coughed into the microphone, and said in a apologetic and grimacing tone, like the words tasted bad on her tongue.  
"Sorry, everyone, I made a mist- I mean, I mixed up-messed up-prob-ahhh!" she shook her head in frustration. "There was an accident. The second member of the quest had been chosen."  
Naomi held her breath in surprise, and the few conversations that were still going on in muted whispers stopped and everyone focused their attention on Skyler. Skyler's crystalline voice reverberated throughout the room:

"Niome Vivienne Elderson"


	9. Scratch the Match

ANDRA

As far as Andra could see, there were two ways the temporary silence that Skyler's announcement had caused could go:

a) Everyone cheered, clapped politely, and congratulated

b) An uproar, accented by 'no fair's and other dismembering comments started a riot only Psamathe could calm down, and everyone would lapse into an angry, rather awkward silence.

Personally, Andra would much prefer the first choice, and so she started the Senators in a round of polite applause. Luckily, this erupted into cheers and congratulations rather than Option B. Naomi _was_ well-liked among the Silviens - no surprise, seeing as she had the looks to charm, the brains to heal, and the strength to fight, along with an undeniable kindness - and everyone knew she would die (almost literally) to become a Senator. The broad smile on her face that showed both her white, large teeth and triumphant elation was impossible to resist; soon Andra found most of the people around her laughing, but she herself leaned her elbows on her knees and her head on her hands, thinking that this was the one mission Naomi should not be part of.  
Up on stage, Skyler had a look on her face that Andra would normally associate with mild constipation. She looked around at everyone impatiently, twisting the microphone back and forth between two fingers, almost dropping it, and then clearing her throat loudly. After the applause and murmurs and back -pats died down, Skyler pushed up her glasses and continued on with the last mission member.

"After due consideration, we have concluded that Niome...er, that is, Naomi will be able to choose the third member of the quest."

A quiet round of applause circulated around the room, but Andra ignored it as she leaned back jammed her fingers into her ears. She didn't want to hear whom Naomi would be unwillingly sentencing to death. But Naomi's amplified voice was too loud for her to block out.  
"I choose...I have to choose a Senator, right?"  
Skyler nodded quickly.  
"Well then can I have...Andra?"

And then, a shock of dread and fear mixed together was slowly spreading its way through Andra's body, numbing her insides. She didn't notice as everyone turned around to see where she was, trying to find her figure in the dim light, she didn't care that Naomi's smile was fading...disjointed observations flew through her head as they always did at times like these-Psamathe, the largest of the shadowy figures at the back of the stage, moved her hand in a quick gesture Andra didn't recognize...the curtains were dark blue, and were strangely faded only at the very edges...Alex was focused straight ahead, one of the only ones not twisting to find her in the crowd...There was an hot chocolate stain that looked but did not smell like coffee on the red cushion on the arm of her chair...  
Her name repeated by Naomi, with a hint of worry, ended her brief shock. She stood up, almost fell over the top of the seat in front of her (a few people laughed) and lifted a hand up reassuringly.  
"Uh, yeah, okay, sure" her words stumbled over themselves as she expressed her agreement, then sat down as steadily as she could. A blonde boy with big eyes sitting next to her smiled at her and a girl Andra did know very well, called Elizabeth, side hugged her and said words of congratulations that didn't really register to Andra. She was going to die if she took part in the mission, and this she was completely sure of. She should stand up, tell Naomi to choose someone else...but then someone else might lose their life just because Andra chose to be selfish, and although the three ragged bracelets hanging on her right ankle proved that she had killed before, she couldn't just let someone die for her.

A hearty round of applause passed around the room, and a lot of people cheered and catcalled. Andra smiled, tongue behind her teeth to make it seem more real, until Psamathe strode over and Skyler almost threw the microphone into her hands, but she thrust it back into Skyler's chin and barked in her unidentifiable accent "You all need to go do something, I'm sure, so goodbye! This meeting is officially dismissed!" She seemed more irritated than usual, Andra noticed. And were't they going to hear more about the mission? Other Senators seemed to question this as well, and a feverish murmur rose into the Senate House air as everyone stood up and flowed out through the doors.  
"Valerie! Cur est Psamathe iratus?" Andra asked Val and her Ealai, Yale passed by on her right, hoping she hadn't messed up her Latin.

"Qui scit?" shrugged Val, prodding Yale forward while Andra tried to remember what 'qui' meant.

A different voice from Andra's left side repeated quietly "Who knows what?"  
"What?" Andra turned and saw Alex, who looked like he was trying to blend into the crowd of teens in togas as much as possible, and failing.  
"Yale-girl said 'qui scit', and that means 'who knows', right?"  
"How did you know that?" Andra squinted at him again. The honest, open-for-everyone-to-see Alex before was not who he had seemed. "Do you know Latin?"  
"Uhhh..yeah." he said. Just the tone of his voice would have given away the fact he was obviously lying, not to mention his eyes moving to the lower left corner and his guilty expression. Then Andra wondered if he had meant it to seem that way. Was Alex trying to confuse her?  
"Liar." she punched his arm, but in a friendly way. "You have no clue how you just did that, do you?"  
He grinned a little. "I guess."  
"Well, that happens to some people" Andra dug up a random fact while she tried to calm her whizzing mind, which was running around trying to find out possible ways Alex could understand Latin more than her without ever studying it before "and they come here and suddenly find they can read, write, and hear Latin almost perfectly - but that's only for majorly Roman people. And if you're mostly Greek..." Andra trailed off.  
" I am, don't worry." Alex assured her. "I guess I must have heard that somewhere before or something."  
"Sure, sure" Andra muttered, keeping her face impassable and desperately thought of how in the world Alex would know this. Every solution was more disturbing than the last. This small bit of knowledge he contained, the sudden ability to know a lanugage she had been trying to learn for years, bothered her more than the fact that she would most likely die very soon.  
"How do you do that?" Alex asked suddenly as they stepped out of the Senate House and into the winding streets. The sky was starting to turn a navy colour, various stars lighting up with them. One of these days, Andra told herself, she would learn a constellation or two, but for now, the only star she recognized was the brightest North star.  
"Do what?" Did he suspect she was suspecting him? Or maybe he suspected her suspicion of his suspecting? Her thoughts tangled up in each other again.  
"Make your face so...blank. Usually I can read people's faces pretty well, but I can never get you."  
Andra grinned slowly. "Practice." Despite her suspicions, she decided to go ahead and trust Alex. Anyway, he was gaining on her in his own way, and was just full of surprises.  
Then she remembered that in a few days, she'd be gone, and it wouldn't matter anymore, and her smile faded as quickly as the last of the sun's rays had disappeared, giving way to the night.


	10. Accommadat Vitam

**AH MY GODS. I read this thing like 3 months after I made it and its mistake extravaganza! My profound apologies. Also, in case you didn't know: my auto-correct is pretty stupid and it often changes 'from' to 'form' for no logical reason. Sorry about that. Hope you can still kind of enjoy the story. Things are going to get more interesting soon.**

ALEX

Alex parted ways reluctantly with Andra at the plaza, which seemed like they had arrived at very quickly. He didn't to leave the last person he knew so far at this camp for fear that he would get lost within seconds. And also, it was fun talking to Andra, or at least engaging. There was always a deeper meaning behind her words, and she wasn't afraid to tell you how it was. And there was the fact that she was the only person Alex couldn't read emotions off of. He had almost always been able to look at people's faces and tell what they were feeling, even if they tried to hide it, and sometimes he could do the same with Andra, but only when she wanted him to, and even then he couldn't tell if whatever emotion she was putting on was true or not. She was the second girl Alex had ever met, except Naomi, who he could actually be with, not make awkward conversation with. If all the girls here were like that, then Alex had found his niche. Anyway, Alex had never thought he could really hang out with girls, but Naomi was really nice and knowledgeable about this unfamiliar place, and Andra seemed to be almost anti-girl. However, Andra dropped Alex off at the plaza, lit by circular lamps built into the bottoms of the corners of the steps, like glowing stepping stones, telling him that she had no idea where his room was, but "find someone and follow them and you'll find it-eventually." After a moment of panic (he had no clue where to go, and also was accompanied by the strange feeling that this was a dream he was about to wake up from at any moment) picked out a random boy in the groups of kids walking around, laughing, talking, and fooling around with his friends. From what he could see in the odd lighting, the boy had slick, smooth blonde hair that came down in a wave over his forehead and a knife-like nose. Keeping track of the boy and his surrounding group of friends, Alex darted through loose knits of teens and tried to walk in the same direction they were, hoping that they were heading to the boy's dorms, and that he could make it there without being trampled.

The walk through more streets with stalls and shops lit by lanterns or from indoor lights inside the shops left plenty of time for Alex to go over everything that had happened in an attempt to reorganize and figure out what he should do next. The only thing Alex was sure of at the moment, though, was that he wanted to go find his dormitory he could borrow someone's cell phone and make a call to his mom, who was on a cruise in the Bahamas. Quickly, Psamathe's warning about using cell phones surfaced in his mind, and then Alex hastily decided against it. She wouldn't know he was gone at all until the week after next, when she would come home, and besides, what would he say?

_Hey Mom, I kind of got kidnapped and taken to this really cool different summer camp but I can't tell you about it otherwise I'll probably be killed or chucked into the Pacific Ocean. Love you!_

It was sort of a relief that his normal life wasn't coming to take him away, though - almost nice. And also, now he could focus on surviving the next few days.

Truthfully, Alex was starting to like Camp Silviens, despite the challenges and craziness and the kind of lonely feeling he had, at the back of his mind. A big thing that bothered him was not knowing who he was. He wasn't mortal for sure, or he wouldn't have been able to get into the camp, but then what was he?He had never had any special skills, so he didn't think he was a demigod, although that was the most likely story, given his background. He felt like he would feel better, calmer, somehow, if he knew who he really was. This irritated him more than anything else.

Alex didn't remember his father at all, who had died the day he was born. His mother had no pictures, but she had always told him that his father was a dirty, rotten swine who had good looks and a hollow head. Alex saw no reason not to believe her, although he did wish he could talk with his father for the first time. Would he be proud to have a son? Did he even know? Sometimes Alex was mad at him, mad at him for abandoning his mother before he was born, and making her colder, sadder. Yes, sometimes some life would appear on her face when she laughed, or sang along to the radio, but on the whole, Alex's mom was sunken and hollow, a shell of what he imagined she used to be. It seemed strange that even though his mother said that Alex's dad wasn't worth a penny, she was so affected when he left, but she told Alex gruffly "That's what love does to you - opens up your chest and your heart and makes you so vulnerable, so easy for someone to get deep inside you and mess you up."

Alex was jostled out of his thoughts by a sharp elbow and a shoulder or two pressing past him as he turned out of the third long, shop-lined street and onto a circular cul-de-sac lined with light brown buildings with lots of windows. Lamps hung down from the sides of the wide, black double doors made darker by the shadows thrown across them from lamps hanging on the outside of the buildings a few yards away from the doors themselves. Large windows on the corners of the rectangular building revealed wide, brightly lit stairwells that continued up through several floors. He would have imagined that, had there been to trees or small gardens surrounding it, the building would look a little gloomy, but it seemed more like a home away form home, especially with the people visible through the windows climbing the staircases, some in didn't seem like a bad place, and the blonde boy's sleek head was already dissappearing into the throng of people.

Inside, there were people flowing into doorways on the right and the left, and on both sides of the small anteroom were wide straight staircases that led up to other floors. Straight ahead dark green double doors with windows built into them revealed a large common room littered with worn couches, poufs, pool tables and such.

He could also see a table behind which sat a fairly good-looking man with a neatly trimmed goatee next to a woman with a black wool trench-looking coat. The two were talking and laughing a lot, not paying much attention to a third woman sitting behind the desk, who was absorbed in knitting what seemed to be a heavily embroidered, canary-yellow sweater.

Alex pushed open the doors, looking around nervously in case he wasn't supposed to be going in to the nearly empty room, but the steady flow of teens passing by didn't even glance at me. The doors swung shut as he released them quietly, and finding the quieter atmosphere settling, Alex approached the table. The woman knitting the sweater looked up; she had a very pretty face and dark hair. The woman in the black coat stared at him as he came closer, and the man smiled.  
"Are you new here?" he asked kindly.  
"Uh, yeah. I was wondering...if I had a room or something?" said Alex uncertainly.  
The woman with the black wool coat looked at him. "Who are you?"  
"Alex Elderson." he said, almost like he was asking a question.  
She flicked through a massive stack of papers on a dark green, official looking clipboard. "Mmm...Alexandros Elderson?" she asked. "You were originally put in the Muenster Building. Do you want to be put here -the Frederickson Building - instead?"  
Alex thought for a minute. He really didn't want to go back outside, walk for ages in the gloom, get lost - who knew if he would make it to the Muenster Building alive? All Alex really wanted to do was go to sleep. But if he was originally put in the Muenster Building, then it was probably for a reason. Or if not, maybe Naomi, Andra, or Anders would be there too.  
"I think that's me. And..yeah, could you switch me over, but can it be just for tonight? And then I'll go to the Muenster Building."  
"Another hour of paperwork..okay, okay" she mumbled as the man next to her started to say something. She scribbled something on a paper.  
"Oh, and - you must have gotten the wrong name, though, before. My name is Alex, not Alexandros."  
The woman looked up at Alex with intense brown eyes that - for some crazy, horrible reason - looked like they had had all emotion sucked from them - blank and empty. Alex could usually read people's faces, or at least their eyes, but he couldn't read the woman's emotions at all. It wasn't like Andra, who could mask them so perfectly - this woman's emotions were impossible to see simply because she wasn't having any emotions. This slightly freaked him out, and he backed away a little as she responded:

"Alexandros, nothing is ever as it seems. This place is not what you think it is. And you are not who you think you are." Then, as if she had said nothing: "You're gonna have to room with someone, though. Dormitories aren't for one - time use, unless you die unexpectedly. I'll call up the guy in Room...eh, 717. His roommate just died, so there's a good vacancy."  
Alex didn't really understand what she was talking about, but he wanted nothing more than to get out of there. Those eyes...  
"Okay" he said, nodding violently, "Seven hundred and seventeen. Okay! Thanks! Bye!" He rammed backwards through the double doors and started walking blindly with the slowly decimating throng of teenagers, climbing slowly up the stairs, trying not to think about that woman in the black jacket, but in reality it occupied his mind. Her voice - and the man's voice, the man's voice especially - seemed so familiar, and it was frustrating, not to mention nostalgically creepy.

Alex mused idly as he climbed the ascending floors - 4, 5, 6, and then 7. The seventh floor must have been the last floor, because there were no more stairs, and only a few people were going through the right and left doors, which Alex could now see were labeled BOYS and GIRLS. Alex swung through the door labeled BOYS and immediately fell down three carpeted stairs flat on his face. Someone laughed sharply from a door next to Alex's right ear, and even though it was closed, it felt like they were laughing at him. Alex stood up quickly, feeling a definite bruise on his jaw, and strode down the hallway. The wallpaper was red and had abstract patterns painted on it, which caught Alex's eye while he watched the door numbers as they passed. 703...706. His footsteps were loud on the thin floor. 709...711. He could hear disjointed snippets of muffled conversation coming from a few doors, and two of the doors on the opposite side were open, one revealing a dark, empty, unoccupied room and the other a room full of boys, most without shirts on, fooling around while loud music was playing. One boy got up and closed the door right before Alex passed. 715...

Alex stood outside a wooden door with rusty gold numbers nailed neatly to the door - 717. After a moment, he tentatively knocked. Almost immediately, the door swung open, and a boy with very red hair that stuck up everywhere was grinning at him.  
"About time! I thought you were going to stand out there all day!" The boy's grin was wide and contagious, because soon Alex found himself smiling a little, incredulous. In the dorm room, two beds stood against the wall in either corner of the small, tile-floored room. Large posters of soccer teams and soccer players were hung all over the redhead's corner of the room, and he had many objects on his wooden desk, identical to Alex's empty one that stood back-to-back with the other boy's, and a lot of cans of grape juice were shoved in a mini-freezer in the corner of the room by an ancient air conditioner. A dresser was built into the wall across from the two beds, half of it covered with odds and ends like fuzz, quarters, and an electronic, green toothbrush. Closets on either side of the dresser that were also built into the wall provided a private changing space by a slide-out separation. A different boy sat on the redhead's bed and another one was adjusting a large music player on the dresser.  
The redhead introduced himself as Jerryl, and his friends as Dawson and Len. Dawson was a lumpy, pasty boy with dark hair and a braces-filled smile, and Len was a short Asian boy with a sharp, chiseled nose and a quiet sense of humor. As Alex looked around in his closet (there were sets of a few jeans, cargo shorts, three dark green CAMP SILVIEN T-shirts and sweatpants sat in his large closet, looking lonely, as well as a generic pair of white socks) and investigated his drawers(which contained a toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, and other toiletries) the other boys, Jerryl especially, chatted with him and soon Alex found himself sitting on his bed, laughing and telling them about how he had gotten here. When the two boys left and Jerryl went to brush his teeth, Alex found that some of the clothes from his room at home had appeared in his closet, some neatly stacked and others on hangers. He grabbed the sweatpants and one of his plain black t shirts, pulled them on, and quickly swallowed some toothpaste, not wanting to leave one place he knew he was supposed to be in to get lost again, even just going to the bathroom. Alex sat on his bed and stared out the window that was right next to it that provided a nice view of the lake and a few streets, as well as some hills in the distance, and even after the two boys wished each other goodnight, and as Jerryl's raspy, quiet snores accentuated the silence, Alex did not lie but sat and looked out the window, listening and watching. He couldn't sleep, but aside from that, he didn't want to sleep. He couldn't bear waking in the morning and finding that this was just a dream, or that he had a delirious concussion, or something like that. But eventually sleep overtook him, and both boys slept into the night.


End file.
